The Barbarian is one of the classes of Diablo IV. A brutal, physical warrior, the Barbarian roams around the battlefield constantly, dishing heavy damage and wielding an array of powerful weapons with ease. With the Arsenal system, Barbarians can swap between different types of weapons, such as from a heavy two-handed mace to a pair of sharp, agile hand axes, depending on the situation, skill, and your player needs. The Arsenal can be composed out of two two-handed and two one-handed weapons, with affixes applying from all four at once, but only one or two at a time used to resolve attacks.
Main Resource: Barbarians main resource is Fury, it degenerates slowly and Barbarians have to generate it in battle.
Class Mechanic: Arsenal
Barbarians will be able to haul around four total weapons and swap between them dynamically at any time. You’ll also be able to assign specific weapons to different skills, allowing advanced players even greater depths of customization. Several skills specifically require the equipped weapon to be bludgeoning, such as Maces, or slashing, such as Swords; some skills may require Dual Wielding or Two-Handed weapons; using such a skill immediately swaps the Arsenal to the best fitting weapons.
Barbarian may bestow immunity to Crowd Control upon themselves or others, as well as other useful bonuses, via Shouts (working similarly to D2 and D3 skills of the same name).
Most Barbarian skills will only deal Physical damage, but the Barbarian has two distinct specializations, either at Red or Orange skills. Warlord (Red) skills and talents generally aim for defense, party bonuses, tactical damage, Bleeding and opportunity strikes, as well as Crowd Control; while Berserker (Orange) skills go for reckless offense, maximum damage output, self-buffs and speed.
As a Barbarian, each point of Strength increases the damage of their skills, while Willpower improves Fury generation, and Dexterity grants critical chance.
When leveling up, Core Stats give the following bonuses to all Classes:
The following three stats are the most important for Barbarians:
Here you can learn about the strengths and weaknesses of playing a Barbarian, and whether this aligns with your style of play.
+ Berserk: Barbarians have access to the Berserking buff, which grants them 25% increased damage and 30% movement speed.
+ Tank: Barbarians are hard to bring down and possess many abilities that increase their survivability. This makes them great for beginners.
+ Massive Damage: Barbarians deal massive damage with their core skills.
+ DPS Versatiliy: Barbarians have many different possibilities for different scenarios.
+ Increased Movement Speed: Barbarians can increase their movement speed through various buffs and abilities.
- Long Cooldowns: Most of the Barbarians' abilities have long cooldowns.
- Close Combat: Barbarians have to get close to engage in combat, this may complicate dodging certain devastating abilities from Bosses or powerful foes.
- Slow Early Game: At the beginning of the games, Barbarians aren't a force to be reckoned yet, and may have a slow start until it gets better.
Due to their unique class mechanic, known as the Arsenal system, Barbarians can equip and swap about four weapons at a time, allowing for better customization. These include the main hand, off-hand, bludgeoning, and slashing weapons. Doing so allows you to freely assign specific equipment to certain skills based on your needs. For instance, Bash, which lets you stun and heavily damage targets, is well suited using a bludgeoning weapon. But if you wish to raise this ability's stun duration even more, then you should opt to switch to a two-handed bludgeoning weapon instead.
It's also worth noting that upon the skill's activation, you'll instantly equip the best weapon in your loadout. Furthermore, every weapon the Barbarian uses has a corresponding expertise stat, thereby leveling up their ranks accordingly. For example, if you wish to boost your Critical Strike chance, then wielding a one-handed ax will come in handy.
Because of this, it's highly recommended to collect and prepare a wide variety of melee weapons to take advantage of this class's build diversity and itemization progression.
Barbarians unlock the Arsenal system automatically when they reach level 5. They get access to the expertise tab, that can be opened by pressing shift + C, which shows all different weapon types and their respective bonuses, when using them. They all start at level 1, and can be leveled up to level 10 by using them in battle.
In order to level up the Arsenal system, players have to use the corresponding Weapon type to level it up. It is a natural process that occurs as you play, given that the Barbarian switches Weapons on the fly and use diverse types. There are two important details that players will have to have in consideration regarding this.
Weapon Expertise | Rank 10 Power | Rank 10 additional bonuses |
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One-handed Axe |
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One-handed Mace |
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One-handed Sword |
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Two-handed Axe |
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Two-handed Mace |
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Two-handed Sword |
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Polearm |
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A brutal, physical warrior, the Barbarian roams around the battlefield constantly, dishing heavy damage and wielding an array of powerful weapons with ease. With the Arsenal system, Barbarians can swap between different types of weapons, such as from a heavy two-handed mace to a pair of sharp, agile hand axes, depending on the situation, skill, and your player needs.
Barbarians will be able to haul around four total weapons and swap between them dynamically at any time. You’ll also be able to assign specific weapons to different skills, allowing advanced players even greater depths of customization.
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Skills | |
Guides |